Singular

DEVOTION

GENESIS

SINGULAR

Gen 2:18-25

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

NIV

It seemed appropriate not to divide this portion of the beginning into smaller segments as it's whole purpose is to show the creation and reason for the woman and the response of the man. Considering how we live today and that we may have departed from the original intent God created both the man and woman, we still should consider the truths within this story and discover just how God wanted us to live. First we can see that all the wild kingdom was brought to Adam and God allowed Adam to name each of them. That must have taken a few days or weeks or even months. But the point is that Adam or man named all the living creatures God had created. There was a partnership between God and Adam. Speaking of Adam, we never heard God name him, so why do we call him Adam? Looking in the Hebrew, the word used here is ‘adam or the English transliteration speaking is aw-dawm which means ruddy or is used for the human race, man. So we really do not know if Adam actually had a name or whether he named himself along with all the other living creatures. For that matter we do not know the language this man used, but he did use a language and that would also reveal he was not an ape-like primitive, less the Homo sapiens species. The truth which we need to see here is that throughout all which God has created there was no suitable helper for the man, Adam. There was no aiding counterpart or mate as the Hebrew words would mean. Here is where we could get into a little stickiness as it would seem many in our society today would have difficulty with this concept. Although God formed the man from the dust of the ground, he did not use the same method to create the suitable aiding counterpart, woman. It is also interesting we have yet to hear this woman referred by a name. It is not until later, after the birth of their first son does Adam give her a name. So this woman, this suitable aiding counterpart was created from a rib of Adam. Now Adam called her woman which the Hebrew word here means the feminine form of another word used for man or mortal, human in the general sense. All this makes quite a bit of sense in the great scheme God intended for us to live. Adam knew this woman was from his own flesh. This had to make him feel a complete total connection with her, as if they were one flesh, one being, which is exactly what is recorded for us to read. This comment of the man leaving his father and mother and being united to his wife and they will become one flesh, has to be a commentary God gave to Moses after the fact as Adam had no father and mother to leave to be united to the woman and become one flesh. But the point is exactly that, we men are to be united with our wives to the point of being one with them, and they are to be a suitable aiding counterpart to us. This certainly would dismiss any thoughts about man dominating woman. Yet throughout the ages we see this was much the case and even today in the Middle East we see this is very much the case. We might even see this in some of our families in this country where the husband acts as though he is the king of his castle and demands the service of this wife. Men have abused women in many ways, but this is not how God intended it to be. He intends for the man to leave all else behind and be united, to cling to adhere to his wife. This is an active word. The man is to actively adhere to his wife, stick to, stick with, and be one with her. This carries so much implications as to how we men should treat our wives. But also this carries a truth for the wives as well. They are to be suitable aiding counterparts. This does not imply they should rule the household, rule over their husbands, being domineering in manner or attempt to take on the role of the husband. We have said many times in the past that we believe God created both man and woman as equal beings but with different roles. This certainly bears out in this portion of scripture and is the reason for how we think. We are one being, united with each other, as God intended us to be. We cannot be two distinct people agreeing to live together. There is no other reasonable conclusion then God intended the man to have a suitable woman to be one with. These two, the man and the woman had no clothes on, as they were naked, and they were without shame. This is the way God designed us to be, without shame in the presence of our mates. This is complete intimacy in its truest sense. Do we live in this manner? Have we allowed the world to infiltrate our relationship with our spouse? Do we think about our relationship based on our society’s standards or how God intended it to be? Are we truly one with each other, well in fact then, there is no each other, as we are supposed to be one flesh. Really there is no we, it should be I. No plural but simply singular.